Waiting room therapy

Waiting room therapy

A therapist I know of, Dr. Remen, tells the story of a colleague of great skill at listening and being present. And when he died suddenly of a heart attack in his mid-fifties, the sudden hole left in his patients’ and colleagues’ lives. After the patients had all been informed, new therapists assigned, name plates on the doors changed, Dr. Remen would notice that some of Hal’s patients would show up in the waiting room. At first, she feared that maybe this was a patient they had missed, who had not heard about Hal’s death, who had not been rescheduled. But she quickly learned that they knew. That they were there not to see Hal, but to be in the place where they had done their work with Hal. After 10 years working with my own therapist, Bert, I got to experience what these patients knew. Bert retired, and several times, at 1 p.m. on a Tuesday, my traditional appointment time, I would find myself in Bert’s waiting room, reflecting on and “channeling” the work we had done together. Like Hal with his patients, like me with Bert, you and I are connected. We have been to some powerful places together. You have been brave to speak of things you could only share with a few or sometimes only with me. And you have let my voice and presence accompany you on a process of recovery, of healing, of finding wholeness. I do not have a physical waiting room you can visit, anymore. But here I am preparing a virtual one where you might continue your work with me on this website.